Back to ledgering

This months blog starts at Kilburn Lake with my friend Dan, who lives nearby. He wanted to see if fishing was something he'd like to get into and was a helpful gillie and keen spectator. I started float fishing red maggots in the margins and landed a good few Roach, before casting further out with a heavier float. It wasn't long before I caught my first Carp of the day, soon followed by another. I alternated between the margins and deeper water and had a pleasant day with good company, although I'm not sure Dan will take up fishing due to "those maggots".

My next visit to the bank was to Mill Dam which in my experience fishes really well...or not! On this occasion, or not! I did land plenty of small Roach float fished on red maggots but after my previous visit when I landed some nice Bream I was a little disappointed. Although the weather was nice and it was good to be on the bank.

The final session this month was at Allestree Lake. I've been meaning to do more ledger fishing, so I took the 10' ledger rod I bought a while ago from Steve Wooley at Ashbourne. I paired the rod with the Abu Garcia Cardinal 654 GT I bought at the Antique Tackle Fair at Redditch earlier in the year. I also took a float rod and Mitchell 300 reel to fish the margins with sweetcorn. I ledgered krill boilies rebaiting every hour or so but without a run all day. Allestree is one of those large, difficult estate lakes and I find it quite intimidating sometimes due to its size. I usually only fish there for the annual fancy dress charity match. However, it's a venue I want to fish more, to build my confidence of larger venues, finding features, gain more experience ledger fishing and also use more traditional ledger hook baits.